Young Finnish Party

The Young Finnish Party was a liberal and Finnish nationalist political party in the Grand Duchy of Finland that was active from 1878 to 1918. The party began as an upper-class reformist movement, and it opposed Russification efforts that commenced between 1899 and 1905. The movement separated itself from the Finnish Party due to political competition between two political generations that held differing views on Finland's constitutional status within the Russian Empire; while the conservative Finnish Party sought legitimacy and cooperation with the Russian Empire in passing its language laws, the Young Finns preferred to use passive resistance to fight for justice. In 1907, the party took part in the first general elections as a liberal-minded center-right party, but the party split into the conservative "Swallows" and the social liberal "Sparrows". The party initially supported the United Kingdom and France during World War I, but they came to support the German Empire during the Finnish Civil War. The majority of its members assisted in founding the National Progressive Party of Finland in 1918, while a minority joined the National Coalition Party.